Emma was born on November 3, 1865, in Cedarvale, Kansas. She married Barzilla Chapman Robinson there in 1886. The couple had two daughters: Ethel Stick (1888) and Edith Pardee (1889), and a son, Charley Hicks Robinson (1895).

Emma was widowed when Charley was very young. She found work as a seamstress in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She came to Prescott in 1932 to be near her two daughters. Emma had a happy disposition and was loved by all who knew her.